First VP: Gov’t Able to Manage Iran without Crude Revenues

Iran’s First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri downplayed the effects of the US sanctions against Tehran, stressing that the government can administer the country even without reliance on oil exports.

“We insisted that the (next year) budget be devised and sent to the parliament in due time to send this message to inside and outside the country that Iran can be managed without reliance on oil revenues,” Jahangiri said, addressing a forum in Tehran on Tuesday.

He added that Iran’s reliance on oil revenues in the next Iranian year’s budget (to start on March 21, 2019) is no more than 25%.

Jahangiri also said that Iran is not a country that can be sanctioned in the transportation sector.

Meantime, he blasted Washington’s “lies” that the sanctions have targeted the Iranian government, and said the first group of the society that will be harmed by embargoes is patients, the elderly and children.

On November 5, the US Treasury Department reinstated all sanctions on Iran lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal.

According to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the sweeping sanctions see 700 people blacklisted, including people who were granted relief under the 2015 deal, as well as over 300 new names.

The Trump administration has agreed to allow eight countries to continue purchasing Iran’s crude oil after Washington’s sanctions on Tehran took place.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said last month that the American officials had admitted their incapability to stop Iran’s crude sales, and the US sanctions would only leave negative impacts on imports of foodstuff, medicine and medical equipment.

“What the Iranian officials said that the US is not able to zero Iran’s oil exports was proved with the US recent admission,” President Rouhani said after a trilateral meeting with the parliament speaker and judiciary chief in Tehran.

“The US announced that it cannot zero Iran’s oil sales because the oil prices will rise to $150; this is what we had said (before). In this region, either Iran’s oil is exported or others will be in trouble as well,” he added.

President Rouhani referred to the US lies that the foodstuff, drugs and medical equipment were exempted from Washington’s sanctions against Iran, and said, “This is incorrect. When the banking system is sanctioned, everything is affected.”